November 13 Wednesday 2002
'England need more than motivational talks'

BRISBANE, Australia: The English cricket team choked on their emotions and consuming desire to win the first Ashes Test, an Australian sports psychologist said on Tuesday.

Phil Jauncey, who assisted the Australian cricketers, said emotions hindered England's performance on the way to their 384-run defeat at the Gabba last weekend. "You could see that because of their feelings they were making choices they couldn't execute and they were poor choices," Jauncey said.

Jauncey said perhaps England players focused more on winning rather than the step-by-step process which would get them there. "That's the problem that the English seemed to have is they seemed to stop doing the little things."

He said the tourists quickly lost any advantage they may have enjoyed from using younger players with no scars from previous Ashes thrashings when Australia crunched them in Brisbane.

The English, who do not have a tour psychologist, indicated it was possible they would recruit one for the rest of the Australian tour, before the second Test in Adelaide on November 21. But calling in a sports psychologist simply to pump up their deflated spirits would achieve nothing, Jauncey said. He said some sports psychologists tried to motivate players to feel good before they hit the field.

"One of the things I teach players is it doesn't matter how you feel or think as long as you control your actions," he said. England needed someone to help work through the problems, teaching players to control only what they could - their actions, Jauncey said.